


We're not a team, this is a competition

by SappySappy



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Drama, F/F, Fluff, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26975893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SappySappy/pseuds/SappySappy
Summary: Park Sooyoung had moved to Seoul to study at SM Institute, but after a turn of fate, she is now the proud owner of a coffee shop in said campus. Her life takes a turn once more when a small woman from Daegu opens up a bakery next door and starts driving away her customers. A story on how these rivals will work together, untangle their feelings and pay rent on time.
Relationships: Bae Joohyun | Irene/Park Sooyoung | Joy
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> joyrene coffee shop/bakery rivalry au.  
> Inspred by that one picture on twitter and Level Up! Ep.11
> 
> Also, thank you to my two friends who helped me with the idea and corrected my awful grammar.

### Prologue

Park Sooyoung was very proud of her accomplishments, although her parents would be the first ones to disagree. The way her life turned out surprised even herself. She was so sure of her path to becoming a doctor as if it had been written in stone the day an eight-year-old Sooyoung had lost her grandfather.

And with this as her goal, she moved from Jeju to Seoul after enrolling at the prestigious SM Institution to pursue a medical degree. However, it didn’t take long for Sooyoung to find out university would be more challenging than what she prepared for.

Sooyoung had always been a smart kid, excelling in both maths and science, plus her perseverance was no joke. But Sooyoung found that at SM Institute, everyone had their talents to be proud of. She admired most of her classmates and made friends with them quickly but no one seemed to have time to hang out outside of the school. This plus the long hours of studying until the break of dawn had Sooyoung regretting her decision.

She did find out that she loved making and drinking coffee, so much so that she invested in a coffee brewer for her dorm room, it was a good purchase as she was spending many nights with nothing but her laptop and a cup of coffee on her desk. After failing three classes in just her second semester, she slowly stopped going at all or left a few minutes after to go study in a library. Medical school was not how she imagined at all, it seemed like she was spending most of her time finding a book in the library or a pirate link to it online rather than doing the things she had once dreamed of.

Unsurprisingly, when she didn't qualify to present her exams due to low attendance, she went through with what had plagued her mind for the last few weeks and decided to drop out. With nothing to her name but her laptop and coffee brewer, she left SM Institute.

Although very brave, she wasn’t ready to tell her parents about her decision just yet. Even though it ate her inside having to lie to them every time they called and sent her their best wishes, she couldn’t muster the courage to bring up what she considered the biggest failure of their life. So a week after she left SM Institute she was already handling two part-time jobs so she didn't solely live off her tuition money. She did enjoy her job as a barista more than her second job as a convenient store clerk. Especially since as a barista she was also taking a short course on coffee making, which brought a sense of progression in her life, learning techniques of a coffee blender and the different varieties of brews, it made her feel like she was a student again. She worked vigorously like this for the next few months. Park Sooyoung was very tough after all, she didn’t come to Seoul just to return as a failure. She would make it here.

She’d still meet with Kim Yerim on the weekends, her past classmate and best friend, who was the only source of gossip she would get of her past alma mater.

“And then Nayeon-unnie got lost in the library again!” Yeri finishes her 30-minute story that has both of the girls laughing in Sooyoung’s one-bedroom janitor’s closet of an apartment she was renting not far from the campus. It's like subconsciously she still couldn’t let go of that place.

“Sooyoung you know, I do miss you in the dorm,” Yeri said while chewing on her instant ramen “And your coffee really is the best, not like those coffee shops on campus. They charged me $5 for extra milk yesterday! Do they have a whole cow in the back?”

“I hated that place too, that barista kept side-eyeing me,” Joy commented in remembrance. “I haven’t regretted getting my brewer even one day”

“That old principal Soo-man is very demanding of them too, that's why none of the stores last more than a month,” Yeri says. “You know if you ever get free time, you could put up a table in front of the entrance with your brewer and make bank. I’d be your best customer.”

Sooyoung had a lightbulb moment.

After Yeri had left for the night, Sooyoung quickly opened up a spreadsheet on her laptop and started making some budget plans. After a few hours of punching in numbers, she had it. It would barely be enough but with her savings and the money that was supposed to go to her tuition she was sure she could rent out a local on campus and buy a coffee grinder. It was a shot in the dark but she had the credentials and now she had a plan.

She spent the few following nights after her shifts writing up a business plan that would convince Lee Sooman himself. His regulations were no joke, from general sanitation to the amount of processed sugar allowed in every drink, but Sooyoung made sure to check every box before going to the man himself.

A whole month after the idea had initially come to her, the pieces were starting to fall into place. She scored especially high when at her early morning shift as a barista, she bumped into Wendy. She was not only the kindest and easiest person to get along with but also a local supplier of cafe equipment and ingredients who helped Sooyoung acquire the machines she needed, figure out a weekly purchase plan, even going so far as to helping her look for a line of credit.

So when it came time to present the business plan to Soo-man, Sooyoung had already cooked up a presentation and considered all the possible details the old man could question her on. The presentation went on to be a lot shorter than she was comfortable with but the old man went easier on her than she had expected. Her efforts were rewarded as they came to a mutual agreement.

And just like that Sooyoung found herself quitting her two jobs and dedicating all her time into furnishing and preparing for her grand opening. Spreading the word around wasn't an issue, she knew a lot of the students on campus already and the ones she didn't, Kim Yerim was definitely acquainted with.

Park Sooyoung had moved to Seoul to study at SM Institute, but after a turn of fate, she is now the proud owner of a coffee shop in said campus. She even hired a part-timer named Seulgi who would help her on the busy early mornings and sign off during lunch time. Though sometimes she would find herself missing being a student, Sooyoung realizes now that she doesn't regret dropping out at all.


	2. Chapter 2

The early Sunday morning at SM Institution seemed like the only time Sooyoung could find peace throughout her day. At 6 AM there were only a few students around campus coming back from an early run. Sooyoung liked to give herself plenty of time to prepare for her day, going through her checklist in her head: warm up the espresso machine, prep the whipped cream, check the syrup bottles, fill the ice bin, her routine was almost like clockwork to her.

A bit over 30 minutes later she was almost ready to open up her store to the students who would come crowding in soon. Despite all the complaining she used to do when she was younger, Sooyoung liked taking her time mopping the floor to her store. It had already been four months since her grand opening of “Power Up!” café and the place still looked like it opened yesterday.

While finishing the last corner of her store, Sooyoung heard a rustling coming from behind her and quickly turned around shrieking in its direction.

“Kim Yerim!” Sooyoung yells at the younger girl trying to recover from her initial shock, her peace now interrupted “the sign says still closed you know?”

“You can’t expect me to read this early,” Yeri simply says while walking around the counter.

“And stop coming in through the back, it's for employees only!” Sooyoung complains although she’s clearly excited to see her best friend so early in the morning. Yeri’s classes start from 7 AM which the younger girl is always late to so the pair barely get to chat until lunchtime.

“That is my backup plan so don't be too quick to say,” Yeri said, taking a seat on a stool and dropping her backpack on the counter as Sooyoung walked behind it to prep the younger girl’s order. “You’ll miss me when I can't come in to bother you anymore, I heard old Lee Sooman finally decided to rent out the lot next to this place after that Starbucks packed up.”

No one could deny Sooyoung made the best coffee in a 10-mile radius, even driving the campus Starbucks out of business.

“No way! I was already planning to sell SM coasters when I heard the campus merch store was going to replace it.” Sooyoung said setting a glass in front of Yeri and pouring her usual Lemon yogurt smoothie, “Still, I’m surprised, not everyone can get past Sooman’s campus health regulations, must be a solid business plan.”

“You hadn’t heard about it?” Yeri asks, taking a sip of her drink. They both turn their heads after hearing a small bell from the door indicating someone´s entrance. A woman with short blonde hair covered with a baseball cap steps in and the whole room lights up a bit more.

“Good morning Joy~a Yerima~” the girl greets sitting on the stool next to Yeri, “Joy, I just need your list for next week’s supply”

“Right! I’ll get that right now” Sooyoung says as she pulls out a folder from one of her cabinets, as much as she was great at organizing orders and utensils she kept losing track of her paperwork.

“Wendy, when are you going to bring the jiggly cheesecakes back?” Sooyoung asks as she’s rummaging through various papers “Mina keeps asking me, you know that was a big hit with the exchange students”

“Might be sooner than you think kiddo,” Wendy said, “I had a call yesterday from the woman who’s moving next door.”

“How has everyone heard of this new woman but me?” Sooyoung asks now mildly irked by the topic.

“Joy if you attended the weekly meeting you’d have known,” Wendy mentions “She ordered a bunch of bakery goods; display cases, cake stands, mixing bowls, trays, I might need to find a new supplier.”

“Another café?” Sooyoung asks, now intrigued.

“Can't say I know anything more than you guys do” Wendy says trying to remember her earlier phone conversation. “She’s definitely from Daegu, very straightforward, you can’t miss the accent”

“Unnie you better get on her good side” Yeri jokingly remarks.

“I just hope Soo-man finally lowers the rent since we’re going to be sharing the space now,” Sooyoung says now resorting to finding her list on her laptop.

Just then their heads turn after hearing the sound of a bell to see a woman rushing in through the door.

“Sorry, I’m late Joy! There was this small woman who was lost” Seulgi says hurriedly jogging behind the bar while greeting Wendy and Yeri. Seulgi was a dance major at SM Institute working part-time at the café covering morning hours and leaving for her classes after lunchtime.

“Seulgi you're just in time, could you print this week’s list for Wendy again?" Sooyoung asks hopelessly as she makes her way to her more comfortable mop “I’m almost done cleaning so we can open”

“Sure Sooyoung~a” Seulgi happily takes over the task.

“Unnie how are you gonna compete if you don't know how to use a printer?” Yeri nudges.

“No one is a threat to Park Sooyoung!” she acclaims as she goes to open the doors of her café.

-

Two weeks passed and Sooyoung was stressed, there was a slow decline in her business and the culprit was right next door. Her usual customers kept going right past her café. Most of them would grab a coffee as per usual but preferred to get their bakery goods from next door, taking away a big portion of Sooyoung’s profits.

She had found herself drifting lately, brainstorming marketing tactics, trying to get any information she could about her opponent. She mostly got her intel from Seulgi, Wendy, and Yeri who were already buddies with her business rival.

The name of her headache was Irene, she didn’t have to ask around for her name since the latter simply branded her store as “Irene’s Bakery”. Curiously, Sooyoung still hadn’t met this Irene, both of them work the same hours so it's not unusual they would miss one another.

Just then a doorbell sounds snapping the girl out of her thoughts.

“Minari~” Sooyoung greets the Japanese girl walking through the door, already reaching for her whisk to prepare the usual three dalgona coffees, she noticed that the girl entered alone and asked, “Chaeyoung and Tzuyu not with you today?”

“Ah hello Joy-unnie, they’re in line next door,” Mina said quietly with a small smile as she quietly grabbed a seat. Sooyoung’s smile dims a bit after suddenly being pulled back into her worries “And you know how Tzuyu is, she's probably going on with Irene about bread”

_So people were lining up next door meanwhile Sooyoung couldn't even fill her seats._

This situation was making her unusually upset, at the same time she felt a lot of pressure to do better at her workplace.

She remembers the day she told her parents about how she dropped out. They were furious, to say the least, they demanded she take the next flight back to Jeju. Sooyoung contemplated it for a while, mostly because she missed the simplicity of being home, she missed going to the beach with her sisters and taking her dogs out for a walk.

Seoul was a very big place and she felt lonely, but she could not put out the fire she had of wanting to make it in this city. Which is how she ended up refunding her ticket back home and with it started saving bits from every paycheck to open her café. Sooyoung had put everything she had into her business, she couldn't let it go down after everything she sacrificed.

These thoughts cloud her as she silently preps the girl’s order.

“Mina” Sooyoung begins quietly “Is Irene’s food better than mine?”

“Unnie you make the best coffee ever” Mina starts “I can tell it’s what gets you out of bed in the morning, and the same passion Irene puts into her pastries“ Mina takes a second to think of what to say next. “You both have the making of a perfect cafe”

“What do you m-”

“Joy!” She hears Seulgi call her from the backroom, quickly pushing her apron into her backpack “I’m sorry, forgot I had to go to rehearsal early today!”

“Unnie, you did let me know. I already made your latte to go,” Sooyoung smiles as she hands the other girl her drink.

“Sooyoung-ie you’re the best boss ever!” Seulgi smiles while only managing to half hugging her with all the bags around her arms “I’ll quickly grab lunch at Irene’s, you know our latte and her croissants go together super well” she announces before heading out the door.

Mina gives Sooyoung a knowing smile before carrying her drinks to a table.

What would she do now? Rent was due next week and Sooman didn't have any plans to lower it. It seemed like this Irene was stealing both her business and her friends.

-

After the end of another slow day, Sooyoung was exhausted. The only thing she wanted to do is close her store and lay down on her bed. Unlike in the mornings, Sooyoung really did not want to take her time mopping the floor at night and finishes up before turning off the lights, grabbing her trash bags, and heading out the back door.

It was a lot later than she had thought, she must’ve dozed off while thinking of marketing strategies, she takes out her keys from her back pocket accessorized with a fluffy yellow chick keychain and locks her back door.

As she walks down the alley making her way towards the dumpster, she hears a rustling sound nearby, she stops at a halt and slowly peeks behind her left shoulder. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a small figure approaching her, from pure instinct she throws her keys at the figure and screams only to hear an even louder scream back at her as the figure clutches its head and Sooyoung stops herself from almost falling back.

As things calm down after a few seconds, Sooyoung makes the figure out to be a short woman with a purple sweater on, it was hard to completely make out their face since there was only a lightbulb illuminating the back alley.

“You!” The small woman says sharply. Sooyoung was surprised at her tone and she mentally prepared herself to be yelled at for throwing a keychain at this woman’s face. “Stop mixing your garbage with mine! There is a separation for a reason!”

“Huh?” Sooyoung asks after taking a few seconds to assess her current situation.

“Every day my part of the dumpster is full of your trash and Sooman keeps bugging me about it!” the small woman continues.

“I’m sorry, I must’ve missed the memo” Sooyoung is more than confused about the sudden confrontation.

“You would have heard about it if you attended the meetings”

Now Sooyoung was getting irritated, she hadn’t had a particularly good day to start off and right now the only thing on her mind was to get home, not start an argument with a stranger.

“Don't get in my business!” Sooyoung says louder than she had intended “This seems more like a problem between you and Sooman”

The other girl pauses for a bit, Sooyoung starts to think she might have actually offended her.

“Just don't do it again,” the woman says quietly as she turns around and takes small steps away.

Sooyoung picks up her keychain from the floor and starts walking towards the dumpsters, making sure to put her garbage bag in her side of the container. She starts to come down from her mild irritation and starts pondering over her recent interaction.

_Who was that woman?_

She was talking about the staff meetings so must be a new SM Institute staff member. But why was she complaining about trash? How did she even know which was Sooyoung's side of the dumpster?

She glances over to the other container with a small bag filled with leftover bread that she confirms her suspicion.

_Was that Irene?_


	3. Chapter 3

Ever since Sooyoung got off on the wrong foot with Irene, it seemed like the latter had declared a full-on war against her. Any attempt at bringing her customers back had been retaliated by her rival.

Her first goal was getting customers to come in. Sooyoung had the idea of offering 10% off on all hot drinks as the temperature started to drop recently. But it seemed Irene was on the same train of thought as she offered 15% off on all her loaves.

The second goal was getting customers to stay at her café and not move next door. She called up her internet company and installed a better router to offer free wifi to her customers. Only to have Irene contract the same package on the same day.

The third goal was getting new customers. Fortunately for her, Seulgi was nifty with designing and was happy to make some visual content for their social media. A few days later, as Sooyoung was about to make a post she saw Irene’s Bakery grand opening on the campus’ official page.

“She’s doing this to torment me” Sooyoung complains while angrily mopping the floor.

It was the end of another Saturday and the group was gathered in the coffee shop after classes had ended for the week. The end of the semester was nearing, and most students would be out of town for the holiday season.

“Sooyoungie you’re going to ruin that mop if you don't calm down” Seulgi exclaimed from the counter she was currently wiping.

“You know, Irene’s the same these days too” Wendy comments while snacking on a bread roll she had gotten from next door.

Good. Sooyoung thought, feeling relieved that her efforts were having some negative effect on her rival.

At least I’m not going down alone. Her slight smile does not go unnoticed by her friends.

“Sooyoung, I’m saying this as your best friend,” Yeri says, putting both her arms around the girl’s shoulders, guiding her to sit on a stool. “You’re losing it”

“You need a break, we should go out tomorrow night, get a drink” Wendy suggests.

“Wendy, tomorrow is the staff meeting,” Sooyoung quickly makes an excuse trying to get up from her seat with no success.

“So you do know when those are” Wendy counterattacks.

“I still shouldn’t, rent’s due in a week” and she was right, having a good next week would pull the weight off her shoulders before the school break. She couldn’t allow herself the luxury of taking Sundays off like before.

“We can close after lunchtime” Seulgi tries to convince the girl “Let’s grab food at Rosé’s place and go karaoke”

“We can take Rosé unnie along too” Yeri teases, mischievously raising her eyebrows at Sooyoung.

Sooyoung was recently acquainted with Rosé through Yeri. She realized they had a lot in common and she felt the understanding she didn’t quite have when talking to Yeri about running a food business. It also helped that the latter was extremely attractive.

After that day, Sooyoung’s small crush turned into another topic for Yeri to tease her about but she hadn’t mustered up the bravery to go ask Rosé out just yet.

“Fine” she sighs in defeat “But I’m not drinking”

-

December in Seoul wasn't the best time to be outside, the temperature was going down after the first snow and some stores were already starting to close due to holidays.

The campus was as peaceful as Sooyoung had ever seen it. She was walking with Yeri towards the main entrance of the university where they agreed to meet Wendy and Seulgi.

She is dressed casually in a red hoodie under a black puffy jacket and cut-off blue jeans with chunky white sneakers. Sooyoung had to admit, she looked good in red.

Yeri was teasing her about if she chose her outfit because they were going to see a certain someone, but their small argument is cut short when Sooyoung starts making out the figure of Wendy, Seulgi, and a third person, definitely not tall enough to be Rosé.

Wait-

Sooyoung suddenly grabs Yeri’s arm and pulls her to the side.

“What is Irene doing here?” she whispers loudly.

“Promise this wasn’t intentional” Yeri assures, “Rosé unnie couldn’t join and we need five people to karaoke”

“Why her?”

“She’s new to the city, we’re only being good friends.”

“Why does that still sound like you guys are up to something?”

“Don't worry, Rosé unnie will still get to see you in red” was the last thing Yeri said before running away towards the group.

“Kim Yerim!” Sooyoung yells while running after the girl, coming to a stop to greet her friends and awkwardly wave at Irene who seemed just as surprised to see her.

This was the first time Sooyoung had seen the girl up close and with proper lighting. She is holding a brown jacket on her arm while wearing a beige hooded knit sweater with fitting jeans. Her dark silky hair was draped over her shoulders complementing her doll-like face.

Wendy and Seulgi were looking for any bad reactions from Sooyoung on the secret party member but she hadn’t spared a second glance at Irene.

After a few minutes of idle chatter, mostly by Yeri, Wendy, and Seulgi, they start to walk towards the burger joint.

This is gonna be a weird day.

-

Sooyoung was surprised, to say the least. Irene was sitting across from her seat and was getting along with the group rather well.

She had heard people chattering in her café about how Irene was quiet and beautiful. To Sooyoung, the girl looked unapproachable and cold, granted the first impression she got was not the best.

Now, however, she was seeing a different side of Irene who was laughing and cracking jokes along with their friends. The only awkward moments so far have been when they both make eye contact. It seems like the environment was not only tense for Sooyoung.

Between their chatter she noticed Lisa, Rosé’s business partner, walking up to their table. She wondered where Rosé was since those two were usually attached by the hip.

“How you like that?” Lisa asks.

“This is the best burger I’ve ever had!” Seulgi exclaims with her cheeks full.

“Glad you like it unnie, we should thank Wendy this place is still afloat this month.” she smiles at the girl “Produce was getting overpriced because of the season, she helped close the deal with a local vendor.”

“You guys praise me too much!” Wendy says, already a bit tipsy from her glass of beer.

“Which is still not enough” Irene chimes in “you helped me a lot with getting things in order too.”

Maybe she and Irene could be friends after all.

“Unnie you must regret moving here during winter, Seoul is best during spring,” Seulgi says in between chewing and swallowing.

“Maybe Joy can finally take us to Jeju this year,” Yeri says tired of asking the taller girl.

“Oh?” Irene says with a curious expression wanting to hear more about the girl who’s been noticeably quiet this whole time.

“Oh right, she’s not from here either,” Yeri says quickly while hiding behind her drink “Unnie and Joy have a lot in common actually.”

And Sooyoung’s guard goes up again.

She must've had some physical reaction to what was just said as Irene visibly hesitates over her next question.

“Did you also move here to open your cafe?” she asks Sooyoung quietly.

“No.”

Irene was the last person she wanted to talk about her failures with.

“Well, do you like it here?”

Yeah, it was great until you came along.

“I do.”

The ambiance was engulfed with an awkward silence.

“I think I hear a table calling me” Lisa makes an excuse to leave and Wendy quickly cuts the tension by changing the subject.

Sooyoung noticed her rudeness from a few moments ago, which is very unlike herself. She finishes the last bite of her burger and gets up from her seat.

“Be back in a bit,” she says as she leaves to clear her head.

-

Joy walks around the bathroom trying to decipher the situation she had gotten herself into. Her friends wouldn't have dragged her along just for her to suffer after having to convince her to come at all. After all, it wasn't as bad as she was making out to be, the day was going good even, well until she made it awkward.

She stops in front of the sink and looks at herself in the mirror.

There’s no going back from that awkward moment now, just own up to it Sooyoung!

“So Park Sooyoung actually came to visit?” she hears from behind her.

Sooyoung could recognize that accented voice anywhere, she turned around to a woman with long blonde hair.

“Rosé!” Joy launches herself at the girl “I’ve been looking for you since I got here.”

“Why are you hiding in here for then?” Rose asks, gladly hugging back.

“I’m not hiding,” Joy says, releasing the girl and continuing after a short pause “I’m just pondering.”

“Hmm pondering your next move is against Irene?" Rose asks, surprising Sooyoung.

“I can't get anything past you” Joy sighs in defeat leaning over the sink basin “I can’t believe I’m having a friendly Sunday meal with my business rival. This is taking ‘keep your enemies close’ to another level.”

“From what I heard from Lisa you weren’t that friendly” Rose says raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms together.

“I know, I know,” Sooyoung sighs again “I’m not ready to shake hands just yet, can't forget she’s the reason for my business hiccup.”

“Really? ‘Power Up’ has been as active as ever though” the blonde girl comments remembering the recent influx of posts on social media.

“It's because she's been pushing me to do anything I can think of,” Sooyoung explains “I’ve been thinking of a million ideas to make my business better.”

“Is that a bad thing?” she asks genuinely.

“Not you too,” Sooyoung says, giving up.

“All I’m saying is maybe Park Sooyoung needed a bit of competition to keep her on her toes,” Rosé says putting a hand on her shoulder “She’s not a bad person. You guys can talk it out.”

Sooyoung sighs “You really can't come karaoke with us?”

Rose smirks, grabbing her arm and leading her towards the door. “Let’s go, you’ve been pondering in here long enough.”

They walk back to see the four girls grabbing their bags to leave. Yeri is the first to notice Sooyoung, she then looks to Rosé next to her and smiles widely.

“I was wondering what was taking you so long but now I understand.”

“Kim Yerim!” Sooyoung yells, giving a light slap to her friend’s arm.

-

Sooyoung was surprised by Irene again. She now understood why her friends had wanted Irene to come along. The girl was an amazing singer and an even better rapper.

She knew firsthand how competitive Irene was, but she had never seen anyone be so competitive about karaoke. Irene and Wendy’s high note battle had her tune into frequencies that weren’t in her hearing range.

How do people so short have voices so big?

Six hours of karaoke was a new record for the group. It was close to midnight and everyone was wiped out after singing ‘Psycho’ for the fourth time.

Sooyoung was sitting on a couch with Irene and Yeri in between them scrolling through the next song to pick. Wendy had tumbled down on the other couch next to Seulgi who was beyond waking up after all she had to drink.

Sooyoung had told herself she wouldn't drink but she allowed herself a glass or two. Besides, it helped her be less awkward around Irene.

“Ya, Yerima I don’t think I can even get up,” Irene says, her voice a bit hoarse.

“Yeah, give me a minute too,” Sooyoung agrees.

“You guys are old,” Yeri says, picking out a solo song and standing up from the couch to grab a microphone.

As the first chords of the piano started playing a slow song, Sooyoung couldn't help but stare at Irene sitting next to her, thankfully the girl was busy looking at Yeri’s spectacle.

Sooyoung must've had too much to drink already since she was noticing the little details on the girl’s face and how the purple light made her eyes twinkle. She had heard multiple people in her café talk about how Irene was beautiful, she hadn’t paid too much attention to it but right now she couldn't look away.

“And I’ve been tryna fill all of this empty. But fuck-”

“Kim Yerim!” Irene and Joy yell at the same time, quickly looking at each other. Sooyoung immediately looked away, suddenly having to take a big gulp of her drink.

Yeri didn't seem to mind the interruption, as she kept on singing. Irene hadn’t tried to start a conversation with her since the awkward moment at the café, so it was her turn to prompt it.

“You’re good at singing” she starts.

“Thank you” she could see the other girl slightly taken aback by her comment. “You’re very good too, I like your voice” now it was Sooyoung’s turn to be taken aback.

“Do you guys come to this karaoke often?” Irene asked, quickly changing the subject.

A simple yes would have been enough but Sooyoung didn't want the conversation to end so quickly, she surprised herself with what she said next.

“Yeri and I used to come here almost every day after our classes had ended so we could unwind for the day.”

“Oh, you were a student too?” Irene asks cautiously.

“I was but it didn't work out,” she says taking another sip at her drink “Still, I couldn't be too far away from the campus for some reason.”

“I think we all know where we need to be. Even if you fight against it, you end up there in the end,” Irene says. She seemed to be thinking of something personal so Sooyoung kept quiet after.

-

“You guys should be ashamed, letting the maknae take care of you,” Yeri says before closing the back seat door of the taxi Wendy and Seulgi were half asleep in.

“Walk safely you guys!” Yeri says as she enters the front seat of the taxi.

“Yerima, don't forget to text me when you get home” Irene reminded.

“Our maknae is the best!” Sooyoung hears Wendy say before the car drives off leaving the two girls alone at the side of the road.

Sooyoung had volunteered to take Irene home since the latter didn't know the streets very well and they both lived near the campus. Besides, she wanted to talk to her and couldn’t think of another time they could be alone together. But now she was soberer and looking at the girl she didn’t feel as courageous anymore.

The cold had gotten worse this late at night. She could see the fog from Irene’s every breath, her cheeks and nose had gotten flushed from the temperature plus the beverages. Irene had put on her brown jacket, which unlike her sweater that fit her perfectly, was way too big for her. Sooyoung had never seen her look so tiny.

“Let's get going then,” Irene says quietly, her voice was still a bit hoarse.

She’s cute. Sooyoung couldn't believe this was the woman she would’ve been glad to fight just a day ago.

About halfway towards their walk home, Sooyoung had painfully noticed they hadn't said a word to each other, and it would remain that way until they cleared the massive elephant in the room, she takes a deep breath.

“I’m sorry about earlier at the table and for that day by the dumpster and for throwing that keychain at you” she started strong but faltered halfway through.

“I’m sorry for that day too, I didn’t mean to get angry at you for something so small,” Irene says, putting her hair behind her equally flushed ears.

“No, it should've been my responsibility to know in the first place, I should really stop skipping those meetings,” Joy says quickly before she realizes “I mean I skipped today but it doesn't count because you’re here too.”

“They’re a bit boring” Irene gives a small laugh “Last time Soo-man kept going on about how it's important to stop the ‘increasing interaction between staff outside of the meetings to avoid drama’” she says quoting the old man.

“He better start thinking of how to stop the increasing rent too,” Sooyoung says a bit frustrated, remembering the previous meetings where she had almost stormed off.

“I know right!” Irene says suddenly filled with passion “That’s going to kill my bakery before anything else has a chance to.”

Irene suddenly seemed to have realized who she was talking with and hid deeper in her jacket. The moment hadn’t turned awkward like before but now they were walking quietly towards the campus.

“I think I can find my way from here,” Irene says as they approach the entrance. “Thank you for walking with me,” she says with a smile.

“No problem, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Sooyoung replies.

“Yeah, have a good night Joy,” Irene said before putting her hands in her pockets and walking away. Sooyoung realized that was the first time she had called her name.

Sooyoung was having conflicting feelings, she was confused about where they were at this point. Sure her perspective of Irene had changed but she wouldn't even call her a friend yet, it’s not like their situation changed. She wasn’t even sure how she was going to treat Irene tomorrow.

In the end, she decided not to dwell on it too much, it's not something she can decide on tonight and it's better to figure it out when the time comes.

Sooyoung turns from the entrance of SM Institute and walks away.


End file.
